Research Activities
Research Projects 2023
Issues around co-development of the social development and public recognition of sign languages in developing countries
Outline
The first research attempt on the issue of Sign Language as social capital in developing countries was undertaken in the 2021-2022 "Sign Languages for Deaf Communities in developing countries as Social Capital Resource" study group, focusing on deaf schools in each country where Sign Language is considered to have been born.
Based on the results of this study, and with help of Bourdieu's concept of Linguistic Capital, and taking into account discussions by Clark (2006) and Rössel & Schroedter, (2021), who focus on language as a social capital, the issue of social development and the official use of sign language in each country was discussed, focusing on the legal system and the actual social significance of Sign Language. The discussion will focus on the actual social significance of legislation and official institutions of Sign Language. By considering the idea that Sign Languages are the Social Capital of the Deaf and an important clue for their participation in the social development of each country as the common basis of each study, the effectiveness and limitations of tools such as the officiallanguage promotion of Sign Languages and Sign Language Laws to resolve the various social barriers that hinder the development of Deaf people will be discussed. The limitations of these tools will be also discussed.
Period
April 2023 - March 2025
Members
| Role | Member |
|---|---|
| [ Organizer ] | Mori, Soya |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Kobayashi, Masayuki |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Konta, Ryohei |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Miyamoto, Ritsuko(Akita University Professor) |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Kaneko, Michiko(University of the Witwatersran Lecturer) |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Kamei, Nobutaka(Aichi Prefectural University Professor) |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Furuta, Hiroko(Kumamoto University Professor) |
*Affiliations are as of April 2023.
Expected Outcome
- Book published by IDE (Japanese)